SENATE: From the Chair

On Consultation:

A Letter of Thanks to AAUP

To the Executive Board of the AAUP at Penn:

Thank you for reminding us in your column entitled "Consultation
as a Process and Procedure" (Almanac,
January 13, 1998) of the University's purposes of "knowledge creation,
codification, preservation, and transmission" and that "broad
consultation from the very beginning leads ultimately to better decisions
which are more easily and widely accepted." Indeed, "democracy
may be cumberson; judicial procedures may be lengthy and tedious to insure
due process" but "early consultation, from the very beginning
of a new initiative, (does indeed) build trust in the relationships involved
in the change process and in the administration of the system". You
have stated well the philosophy which should underpin University policy
and process.

The Past Chair, Chair-elect of the Faculty Senate and I are also very
appreciative of your expressed confidence in what collective years of experience
and perspective bring to the consultation process. More potent is your
reference to Faculty Senate and University Council committees. In order
to lead appropriately and relevantly, the Senate Chairs rely heavily on
the work of these committees. One cannot hold office in the Faculty Senate
too long before the impact of the range of expertise and depth of outcome
characteristic of our committee deliberation processes makes an indelible
imprint. This "imprint" is our most valuable capital!

Your recommendation to the administration of early use of this existing
structure is also born of experience and is wise. It is our hope that
recommendations from the University Council Ad Hoc Committee on Consultation
will not weaken the existing structure but will lend it great strength.
A consultation process between the administration and the three Senate
Chairs to develop the charge to this committee is ongoing, interrupted
only by the Winter break. It should reach the committee soon. University
Council has requested a report by its final meeting in April.

Thank you for lending your voice to the conviction that an effective
and dynamic consultative process is the only path to ensure "a full
measure of trust, a sense of community, and a sense of shared destiny to
Penn."